Talk:Fort Crown Point

Latest comment: 14 years ago by Student7 in topic 59 cannon sent to Boston

59 cannon sent to Boston

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I was under the impression that Knox brought cannon from Ticonderoga to Boston which was also helpful. This does not need to be mentioned here. I wonder about the number. Ticonderoga couldn't have had many cannon - it was too lightly guarded, so I am willing to believe that the most cannon came from here. But some resolution of numbers probably ought to be made between the two articles. Student7 (talk) 14:53, 6 May 2010 (UTC)Reply


Crown Point's Historic Site Manager said that while just about everyone knows that on May 10, 1775, Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and 83 Green Mountain Boys captured Ticonderoga and its 78 pieces of heavy artillery, few know that the very next day, 100 Green Mountain Boys, led by Seth Warner, likewise liberated nearby Fort Crown Point from British control. Twenty-nine of the 59 cannon transported from Lake Champlain to South Boston that winter originated at Crown Point.

Shortly before Henry Knox arrived at Ticonderoga in December 1775 to move heavy cannon a great distance, patriots prepared for his arrival by selecting 29 of the 111 cannon at Crown Point to be hauled to Ticonderoga, where they would join 30 others picked from among those already there.

Upon arrival, troops serving under Knox undertook the task of moving the captured cannon. With a combination of barges, bateaux and oxen-driven sledges, the 59 artillery pieces, with a combined weight of 60 tons, were hauled from the forts on Lake Champlain southward and then east across the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts for the Continental army to use to put an end to the British naval blockade of Boston harbor.

So when one considers that very nearly half of the artillery pieces hauled from Lake Champlain forts to South Boston came from Crown Point, one realizes that the actual starting point of the historic artillery trail is Crown Point, even though there is no bronze marker placed there yet to declare that fact.